And to make matters yet more scandalous, the whole sorry snub is being paid for by – yes – the British government.

Polish workers are being bussed in to the Cammell Laird shipyard to work for Trimline on a Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessel. Trimline is contracted by the Ministry of Defence with a direct line to central government.

This is the government led by Gordon Brown who, at the 2007 Labour conference, promised "British jobs for British workers".

Those words have rung hollow amid rising unrest about the use of foreign labour, notably at refineries.

The PM's pledge has been attacked by critics as unwise and even illegal, as European law opens UK jobs to all EU nationals.

Brown, though, repeated the pledge last month but claimed it was all about training the British workforce to the point where the so-called skills gap no longer existed.

Give us a break.

This is Cammell Laird we’re talking about – one of the biggest names in world shipbuilding in the 19th and 20th centuries. And this is Birkenhead - not Birmingham. They’ve been building and repairing ships here for nigh on 200 years.

Laird’s is beyond reproach. It simply provides the yard for contractor Trimline to do the work.

What we need to know is this: Just how hard did Trimline and the MoD try to find local workers?